GHOST
by sillym3
Summary: A DB was found... A ghost came back.... *Non Slash*
1. Chapter 1

_**This fic is a celebration of my third year around this amazing site. I think I can proudly say that I've made progress. My first fic was so jumbled in characterization and grammar and this fic is… well…a little less jumbled ;) **_

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**GHOST**

A DB was found in a garbage truck. Female, Asian, mid twenty, with two stab wounds to the chest.

There was nothing unusual about the DB. At least not for seasonal crime scene investigators like Catherine Willows and Sara Sidle that happened to handle the case.

Nevertheless, processing a truck worth of garbage and the truck itself had both women spent almost half of their shift dwelling in the stink, so to speak.

Catherine, trying to unstuck a boot from a plastic bucket, wondered about what she had done in her previous life, so bad that her karma was to check every single sordid item from the pile of trash.

Sara, her gloved hand bearing unidentified decaying mass, had commented on the importance of a rookie CSI in such a grimy time.

The comment inevitably triggered a question from the night-shift supervisor. A question that Sara knew most of Las Vegas crime lab inhabitants would love to know the answer.

Sara answered that she still found long-distance marriage bearable although the jet-lag was not.

Catherine didn't push; her attention was drawn to a diaper that had some strange stain despite other stain that most diaper should had.

The blonde commented on the possibility of blood stain.

The brunette grabbed a luminol spray and swiftly proofed that it was really blood on the diaper.

From there they found three more diapers with blood stain and hit a jackpot when Sara located a knife, seven inches blade with more blood stain and a promising fingerprint.

Then, it was time for the usual routine of crime solving. Again, usual from their point of view. Sara checked the fingerprint on the system while Catherine went to the morgue with the previously bagged knife.

It was an easy case. They nailed the suspect at the first try. The man had no liable alibi and called the two investigators every name under the sun as Vartan and the uni dragged him out of the interrogation room.

Had it been on TV, they wouldn't have made half an episode.

But it wasn't TV. When both Sara and Catherine reached the parking lot the sun was already posing in the middle of sky.

Both of them huffed.

Both of them had different reasons.

Catherine huffed for another day passed without real conversation with her daughter, a daughter that would soon leave the house for college

Sara huffed after reading a text message from her travel agent; usual information about the unavailability of plane ticket for this weekend.

Usual, if it wasn't an intercontinental ticket to meet her husband.

To their surprise, Catherine offered to go to a bar.

And to their surprise once more, Sara accepted the offer and creatively opted to go to a Karaoke.

Catherine agreed and spoke of the value of Greg for such a hangout place. She texted Greg and told Sara to do the same with Nick.

Before both women realized it, they were escorted by a giddy ex lab-tech and a pretending-to-be-reluctant Texan to room 333 at one of many Karaoke pits in Sin City.

Greg hit the first line of 'Leaving On A Jet Plane' lyric, dedicating it to Sara, as Catherine made an order for four bottle of Corona.

Nick doubled the order and Catherine nodded in understanding, knowing that the man had spent his latest shift to process a decomposing ten-years-old.

Sara spoke of her willingness to be the responsible adult behind the wheel and punched Greg's square on the shoulder when the man not so discreetly wiggled his eyebrows and mouthed the word Preggo.

The beers came as Greg bellowed the chorus. Nick and Catherine each grabbed one bottle in no time as Sara stood and excused herself to the restroom.

This time Greg yelled the word Pregger to the glittery microphone and got himself a deadly glare and a dangerously flying cushion.

Sara was about to lower her pants in one of the restroom cubicles when she heard someone scream.

She easily shrugged it off. People screamed all the time in a Karaoke, right?

Then came another scream, louder then the first one.

Her investigator instinct kicked in Sara hastily tidied herself before dashed out of the restroom.

Following another scream she reached the corridor and right in front of room 333 she gasped.

There on the illuminated floor, in a pool of blood, was a blonde.

A gaping wound on her neck covered only by few strands of long hair. Her lifeless body was so in contrast with all the decorations and the muffled music and laughter from afar.

Sara kneeled and reached out, her heart drummed her chest and her thought went wild.

_Catherine…_

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**TBC **

_**I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Update will arrive soon and your comments are appreciated. Thank you. **_


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you so much for reading the first part, here is the promised update… enjoy… and review:)**

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_Catherine. No. Please, God. Not Catherine. _

The thought of losing another friend in such ungodly way gave Sara sudden dizzy spell.

She tried to focus on the body, yet the dim light didn't help.

_Is this what Grissom had felt when he found Warricks on the alley?_

The image of her husband flashed before Sara's eyes. She couldn't even imagine his reaction if he was in her position right now.

_Catherine._

Sara composed herself calm and reached out again. Yet she thought the better of it and retracted her hand.

The woman was in a striped tank top and a pair of jeans. Catherine wore striped blouse and her usual tight pants to work today.

Sara moved closer to see.

It wasn't Catherine.

God only knew how thankful Sara was, she took a deep breath before checking the body for pulse.

As expected, with the amount of blood on the floor, she didn't find any sign of life.

Sara calmly produced her phone and dialed for dispatch, indicating for the few people standing around not to touch the body.

She stood, giving the necessary details of the scene to the woman at the other end of the line and opened the door to room 333.

Catherine was having the hold of the microphone at that time, one of her feet perched on the table as she sang. Greg was in the middle of impersonating a belly dancer when he spotted Sara on the door.

Then he spotted the body on the floor and let out a curse.

Catherine turned her head to see while Nick was already on his feet putting down his share of beer on the table.

The three of them immediately piled out of the room, each with questions addressed to Sara.

The later just shook her head, stating that she was as clueless as the rest of the team.

In a matter of seconds a standard process to handle a DB was started in ease. The ease part was more because they were trained to handle such situation.

Sara stayed with the body to make sure no one ruin the evidences.

Nick, his hand rubbed his temple, went for the receptionist desk to ask for the karaoke's securities not to let anyone out.

Greg started gathering witnesses and asked them to line up at the corridor. Not everyone happy with his demand, especially not the upset Karaoke's staffs.

Catherine bent over the body, scrutinizing the face. She asked if Sara knew the victim, because she felt a strange déjà vu.

Sara took closer inspection, using a pen to move the hair that covered the face. She then mentioned a name.

Catherine looked up at Sara then looked down at the body, wincing.

Sara, knowing exactly what was in Catherine's mind, reached out for Catherine's shoulder.

The night shift supervisor covered her mouth with her hand, muttering her need of fresh air before walked outside.

When Greg asked of what was wrong Sara could only shrugged.

From all of the people in the world, Sara was probably one of the minorities that could truly understand the feeling of seeing a ghost from the past.

And one look at Catherine's eyes gave Sara a clue that this ghost was one that still haunted Catherine's sleep.

Sara waited until Vartann and his uni's came with two swing-shift CSIs. She let one of the uni took her statement before going outside with Greg.

Nick was talking with one of officers too, still rubbing his temple. Greg waved at him but he didn't wave back.

They found Catherine leaning against the door of a patrol car. Vartann was in front of her, holding an uncapped bottle of water.

Sara nodded toward the detective before asking Catherine if she was okay.

Catherine shook her head no and spoke of her will to leave the scene.

Nick joined them and backed Catherine up. He said there was no use of staying at a crime scene in their day off.

A snicker erupted from Greg who was more than happy to correct Nick's sentence. Greg said that there was no use of staying at a crime scene after six pack of Corona.

He got himself lethal glares from his three co-workers.

Vartan smiled considerately, commenting about the necessity of booze after a though shift before asking them if they had taken that much.

Nick muttered something about draining the content of two and a half bottle. Catherine held up two of her fingers while Sara shook her head no and Greg said zilch.

Vartan nodded, asking Greg to drive his co-workers home before playfully reminded them not to go out of town before the investigation over.

Too bad Catherine couldn't see the joke. She snapped, asking if Vartann accused her of something.

Like a fish gasping for air, Vartan opened his mouth only to close it again.

Catherine then spat out her thought. As much as she would love to see the end of the woman's life, although she had dreamed of doing the homicide herself, the woman didn't deserve her time.

Greg and Nick rooted on their spots, looking at Catherine as if she was a ticking time-bomb.

Anger fuelled Catherine's words as she stated that she hated the dead person on the Karaoke floor to the bone, yet if it was up to her, she wouldn't have given the bitch that had killed Eddie and had ruined Lindsey's life such a quick death.

With the end of her sentence Catherine walked away, leaving Vartann to stammer an apology.

Sara could only shake her head, knowing that when the ghost from one's past paid

a visit it was always a fight-or-flight situation.

This time, Catherine chose for flight.

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**Okay… I kind of challenged myself not to write any real dialogue for this fic. So far I've succeeded, haven't I? Anyone knows the name of the DB on the karaoke floor?**


	3. Chapter 3

**I'd tried my best-est to pull this one through without dialogue, rearranging the sentences and all; I even made half of this chapter only to fail miserably toward the ending. Had I used a typewriter my fingers would have lost half of their length.**

**I hope you enjoy this last bit, I surely "enjoyed" typing it;)**

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"It was that bad huh?" Although it was hours of daylight, the basement parking lot was rather dark, a thing that Sara hated. _It wouldn't cost that much to add extra lightbulbs, would it?_

Catherine was leaning against a concrete post near Sara's Prius, her face hidden by the shadow. Sara could barely make out the outline of Catherine's shoulder as the later shrugged.

"I'll be fine. Just drive me home." The blonde whispered, then as if in afterthought continued. "Please."

"You know." Sara producer her car key and turned the alarm off before leaning on the passenger door , gazing at a slice of horizon that peeked through the entryway. "I've never really apologized to Lindsey…." She stole a glance at Catherine_. For not solving the murder of her father_, she continued silently. "Candeece, well… she has brought out old nightmares, hasn't she?"

She bet one of Catherine's nightmares was of a crying Lindsey inside a sinking car.

"Yeah." Catherine said despondently.

"Well, that's settle it. The body on that floor is a ghost for us."

Catherine looked up to Sara, somewhat demanding her to elaborate. Yet the later kept on gazing out and only spoke again after a good while. "You know, the past that haunt you."

"Oh… yeah, that woman, Candeece. A ghost."

Sara nodded as she jammed her hands in her jacket's pocket. From her "The Ones That Got Away" list, the murder of Eddie Willows was one that Sara regretted the most.

Catherine's obvious disappointment had upset Sara back then. But it was Lindsey's young and troubled eyes and Candeece's detached and phony attitude that had saddened her.

For Sara, Candeece that lay lifeless on the Karaoke floor was another ghost from her past.

And for Sara, her inability to give Lindsey a closure had been an immense failure. Seeing Candeece again had reminded her of that failure.

"I was pretty upset that time, blamed on anyone but me." Catherine blurted out.

"You were." Sara agreed, she could make out a grim smile on her supervisor's face. After she tagged the last evidence bag of EddieWillow's murder It had taken months before Catherine treated her "normally" again. "But I understood."

"But Lindsey… she was different she was confused but she didn't go mad, not like me." Catherine turned to face Sara. "Grissom had offered me some time off that day. I had refused. I figured by working hard I'd recover quickly."

"It never works that way." Sara sighed.

"No. It doesn't." Catherine sighed too. "You know? I gave Lindsey more attention than I could give back then and the funny thing is I was the first to break down."

"You were?"

"Yeah… she's good, my daughter… you don't need to worry about her, at least not for the unsolved murder of her father."

"What about you? Do I need to worry about you?" Sara slowly brought her eyes to meet Catherine's.

"It was ancient history Sara. I've bounced back long time ago." Catherine averted her gaze to the concrete floor. "I just… seeing her body like that… she triggered emotions; that damned bi… woman. That damned woman."

And of course Sara could agree to that.

Shadows of two men were on the floor when Greg and Nick entered the basement. Both men glanced nervously at Catherine as they came closer to Sara.

"I'm more than ready to go home." Nick muttered.

"Us too." Catherine straightened herself and tapped Greg's arm. "Hey. I'm sorry about earlier, the body…"

"Nah, we get it. Right drunken boy?" Greg bumped his shoulder against Nick's. The later was clearly not amused. "It's Vartann." He winked at Catherine. "You scared the life out of him."

"Yeah, I owe him an explanation. Let's just go home and take some rest. Our shift is in nine hours."

"Speaking like a true supervisor." Sara smiled and walked around for the driver side of the car. "See you guys." She waved at Greg and Nick as she started the engine; Catherine was already on the passenger seat.

"You should meet Lindsey sometimes." Catherine offered. "She has changed a lot."

"Yeah, that will be a good idea." Sara hit the gas pedal. "Maybe later, when Grissom's in town we'll pay a visit."

They got to the outside of the building in no time. Patrol cars were still there with some officers around. Sara idly wondered if Candeece's death was karma. She wondered if all of her ghost would vanish somehow, in one way or another. Yet as she stole another glance at Catherine she knew.

Ghosts weren't meant to vanish; they would always linger around you like shadows.

The real matter was your acceptance of them.

**EnD**

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**Thank you for reading. Thank you, even for just a quick glance at this story:)**


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